Local compactness criterion for a complete non-Archimedean field

A complete field with a nontrivial Non-Archimedean absolute value is locally compact exactly when its valuation is discrete and its residue field is finite. In that case its valuation ring is the inverse limit of the finite rings $\mathcal{O}/{\mathfrak{m}}^n$ and is compact. The nontrivial valuation in the local compactness criterion is essential.

Let a nontrivially valued local field have compact valuation ring $\mathcal{O}$, and choose any $t$ with $0<|t|<1$. The quotient $\mathcal{O}/t\mathcal{O}$ is finite. A fixed set of representatives containing zero gives every field element a unique convergent digit expansion, with finitely many nonzero negative-index terms. Recursive reduction modulo $t\mathcal{O}$ gives existence; comparing the first differing digit modulo this ideal gives uniqueness. The element $t$ need not be a uniformizer.

In a locally compact nontrivially valued field, the valuation ring is compact. A Cauchy sequence has a tail inside a translate of this compact set, hence a convergent subsequence. The Cauchy property forces the full sequence to converge.

For a locally compact field with a nontrivial Non-Archimedean absolute value, scaling a compact neighborhood makes its valuation ring compact. Its open maximal ideal gives a finite discrete residue field, so that ideal is also closed and compact. A nonzero element of maximal absolute value in the ideal generates it. Successive division by this uniformizer makes the value group discrete.

An infinite field with the trivial absolute value on a field is discrete, hence locally compact, but its residue field is the original infinite field. Thus local compactness forces a finite residue field and a discrete nontrivial value group only when the valuation is assumed nontrivial.